These are the top selling Latin Rock & Pop titles at Amoeba Hollywood from the dates of November 28th through December 28, 2008. Maybe you were lucky enough to get one of these releases as a gift. If not, maybe you can buy it for yourself!

Aterciopelados' newest release took the top spot. Released in early November, it didn’t sell that well upon release but it picked up steam as the gift giving days approached. The same went for the live Rodrigo Y Gabriela. For the most part, live releases don’t do too well but Rodrigo Y Gabriela are known for the intense live shows and this made a great gift for anyone who went to their shows or hopes to see them live in the future.

Calle 13’s latest is good but it’s hard not to compare it their previous releases. It’s not that Los De Atras is a bad album, it's just that they set the bar so high with last year’s Residente o Visitante that anything they would have done would be considered a drop-off. Still, there are plenty of great tracks on the album and Calle 13 continues to be one of the most original groups around.

At the number four spot is the Arriba La Cumbia compilation on the Crammed label. Compiled by Russ Jones out of England, Jones mixed Electro, Villiera, Traditional, Reggaeton and Merengue all with Cumbia elements. This was the perfect impulse item, as every time we played in the store we sold a bunch.

I think people buy Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos as a gift to relive their childhood memories. Like drinking water out of the manguera triggers memories of playing outside on hot summer days, Cantan En Español reminds people of hanging out with their parents/grandparents at a family gathering with Eydie Y Los Panchos playing in the background. It’s the perfect gift to give to your elders that will make them say, “Oh, I haven’t heard this in years!” Still, I can’t help to think the grandparents secretly wished they got Marco Antonio Solis’ Live In Madrid or Julieta Venegas’ MTV Unplugged instead. Both performances have been on T.V. so much that I often see moms & pops buying it for themselves. I think the best way to buy music for your parents or grandparents is to find out what they are listening to now rather what they were listening to back in the day. Don’t make gifts a way for you to walk down memory lane. If you want to do that, go run around in the backyard and drink from that water hose!

Our core Latino Gays that shop in the Latin Rock & Pop section begged us to get the import version of Monica Naranjo’s Tarantula, which was released in Spain during the summer. But at a hefty $39.99 list price and a with domestic release date on the horizon, I didn’t feel it was fair for someone to pay that much for a single CD. It was a hard wait, because the album’s release date was pushed back several times until finally it was released in late November. Now that it is out, it reached the eighth spot on the Christmas chart, which means it was probably worth the wait.

At the tenth spot is Manu Chao’s Clandestino, perhaps the Srgt. Pepper of Latin Rock albums. I listened to it the other day from beginning to end and it still sounds as fresh as it did the day it came out. It is always a great gift for anyone who is adventurous and has never heard of him…or for that special someone who wore out their copy and needs a new one.